A Day In The Life Of Tuffy

 The mornings are peaceful, every morning they are laying down, sometimes with one standing guard but not today. 

Then it is chow time....

The pastures are amazing right now with all the rain we continue to have. 

While the mares get fed, Tuffy gets haltered for his daily lesson. Progress report: leads well, lets me pick up his feet and place them on the ground myself, and is learning to go past me on the lead line (precursor to many things like lunging, trailer loading, obstacles etc.) When I hold a bit of pressure on the lead rope, he thinks about it for a moment then steps forward, precursor to standing tied. 

Then back out on the pasture to find the tallest grass so he doesn't have to bend those long legs so much. 

Walking is fine, but....

zooming is more fun!

It is always better to see if one can get in trouble.... (those ears tell the tale!)

Trouble found! 

Of course, if I am in the pasture it means obligatory rump skritches!

 

Poor Velvet, she  puts up with a lot of pestering from him but she is a very good nanny and never reprimands him. 

She just walks away and hopes he finds another distraction. 

One can scratch oneself...

Or get a little help from a friend. 

He hunts me down, knowing that I will give him lots of attention. 

I love this colt,  he has the best personality and is so very easy to work with. At 5 weeks old today, I am so pleased with his progress and he sure is easy to look at! 

Gussie is back and has company

 After a soggy two weeks of rain (4 inches overall) it was sure nice to get a break and see some sunshine this morning. 

 

I picked Gussie up yesterday; she had 4 good covers over the week she was at the breeders. I also picked up Shayla's Paint gelding, Zipper, who was done with his two month training just a few miles from where Gussie was. Zipper will be staying with us for a couple of weeks for some R&R  as well as helping to eat down all that pasture grass that the rain brought on abundantly. 

Both he and Gussie rolled ... of course. 

Gussie actually loaded and travelled well, I think having company in the trailer suited her. She wasn't sweated up at all when I unloaded her. 

I put Gussie and Velvet in Beamer's old pen, and Rally with Zipper in the big pen that has the shelter and access to the middle grazing pasture. The automatic waterer serves all the pens, so that is one less chore for me. 

I am hoping that being in with a gelding will help Rally show signs when she comes into heat. So far, she is just bossing him and keeping him away from the other mares when they come up to the fence to visit. 

I did spend some time working with Rally during the last week, although the rain made such a mess. I can catch her anywhere now without any fuss. I had the horse trailer backed up to the pen, and she was pretty wary of entering it, although she was interested that Velvet marched right in it for a pan of grain. (Velvet doesn't walk, she marches!)

Rally: "It's a trap!"

Velvet: "Nom nom nom," 

Rally: "I don't knooowww"

And that of course, is exactly it. She doesn't know. Small spaces are something new to her- the trailer she came here in was a big ole stock trailer that she just followed her buddy into. So asking her to step into a confined space is a big deal. Working her outside it and giving her release from pressure when she faced the trailer usually works but for her, it just triggered her flight response. She hasn't had enough longeing work for her to understand that. So once things dry up here, I will work her in the round pen so that we can get that down solid. 

Meanwhile, I thought maybe get her willing to go into the little barn- so I fed Velvet in there, then put Velvet back in pasture and left Rally in the pen with the barn door wide open and the grain pan visible. By the time I returned, Rally was in the barn happily munching away.  So that is something we can build on. 

"It's not so bad in here. "

After that, I led her to the trailer.... within 15 feet of it she stopped, unwilling to go any farther. So I asked for one step at a time - step, praise, repeat. She finally allowed as how it was maybe ok to have more grain from the back of the trailer. 

Since I am trying to build trust with this mare, I am willing to take the time needed to have a willing horse. Willing to have her feet done, willing to go wherever I ask her to, willing to haul in a 2 horse trailer. 

Dallas

 The herd dynamics begin! Last night, at feeding time, Gussie was quite aggressive with Dallas, so I opted to close her in the foaling pen again overnight.  Traditionally, Gussie has always been the enforcer, protecting her favorite buddy, who is usually the #1 mare in the herd. With Dallas, it went beyond stink eye and pinned ears and she actually chased Dallas away. I kept an eye on them, and they all hung out together at the fenceline . This morning I fed in a bigger area with widespread piles of hay; that worked quite well. 

Dallas finding her spot

Dallas was allowed to eat next to Velvet, with just a token ear pinning. And hey- is that a baby belly on Velvet? I sure hope so!

Dallas has the cutest ears!

I opened up the gate to the pasture which is about 5 acres. Gussie was bossing Dallas out of the hay pile, and Dallas spotted the open gate. 

And off she went on an exploratory tour. The other mares kept eating their hay .

Checking all the smells....

and finding the perfect spot to roll....

Then she stayed out there and went to pawing and eating. The other mares joined her after a bit and harmony ensued- nothing like having lots of space and not being crowded.

After a couple of hours, I checked on them. This pen has electric rope fencing, and I don't know if Dallas knows about electric, but apparently she is happy enough just to hang with the herd. 

All is well so far! I will probably measure Dallas tonight when I bring her in for one more night in the pen by herself. She should be close to 15 hh, but looks can be deceiving. 

Escorted

 I have had some special moments in the last week or so. You may remember me telling you about how Velvet walks beside me wherever I go, well lately Gussie is getting in on the act too  

Gussie has been a bit stand offish for a while now; she looks away if I go to touch her anywhere on her head, so I started greeting her with a chest rub instead, and waiting for her to turn her head towards me. Apparently she approved of this new routine for she no longer looks away when I approach her. Velvet, on the other hand eagerly offers her head for rubs. 

Anyway, this has lead to Gussie no longer holding back when its chore time. Previously, she would wait until Velvet and I were some distance ahead before following. Now, it starts like this:

I always visit with them and check them over before walking down the hill to their shelter where I have hay for them. So yesterday, Gussie marched right along beside me, and Velvet on the other side.  The moon was out in all its morning glory, so I stopped to take a photo, and both mares stopped right beside me and quietly waited until I started walking again. So to test this, I stopped again in a bit, and so did they. I felt such a beautiful harmony with them!

To top it off, on my way back to the house, the female cat, Misty, escorted me to the house from the barn. She saunters out about 15 ft, stops and looks back at me, then off she goes again, repeating her actions all the way to the house. 

Well isn't that special! 

This morning, they decided to lead instead of escort, but they both stopped when I did.

Here is the moon photo I mentioned, in all it's misty loveliness. 

 

My bodyguard

 Every step you take .. 

Every move you make....

I'll be watching you...

She never leaves my side when I am in with them. 

Back off, Gussie, I got this!

Gussie is allowed to walk on one side, and when I stop walking it's like I have book ends. So I rub their backs and soak up the love. 

Dynamics

 I spent yesterday visiting Shayla and taking photos for her of her stallion and his mares as well as some photos of the foals for sale. 

Her stallion "Rex" (Majors Pistol) is 3 this year and he has matured nicely. He is a good pasture breeding stallion- respectful of the mare's space but also no nonsense if they stray from the herd. I got to watch him at work with 2 new mares introduced to the herd and how he rounded them up. 

These nice mares belong to The Rowdy Ranch (Facebook page) and they are the people who now own Midnight Mesa, who they call Mindy. 

Also introduced to the herd that day was Shayla's mare Concho and her palomino filly (sired by Rex)'

Rex was trying to drive them to the herd and Concho was saying no- she had just kicked at him and although it may look bad, his kick was nowhere near her. He actually has very good respect for the power of mares!

This is Rex's current herd- a Percheron mare, a grey Azteca/Percheron cross mare, and Shayla's mare Dolly. The sorrel colt, Johnny, is Dolly's and sired by Rex. He looks tiny next to that big draft colt! 

Johnny will be a tall boy when he's all done growing!

As Rex went to the new mares, he circled them widely and didn't put any pressure on them until he got to the point where if they went forward they would be going to the group of mares. 

Sneaking past them....

Beginning the drive

Game on!

It was quite something to watch the power and athleticism of this handsome stallion at work. He had moves like a cutting horse and he was very effective- one would not want to get in the way of even the best minded stallion when it comes to his doing his job. 

There was more to the day, but that's for the next post!